History Headscratchers / LawAndOrder

In "Helpless" (s3-6), how the hell did Dr. Merritt keep his medical license? I understand how he ducked the criminal charges (at first), but when you cop to sexually assaulting a patient, how are you not immediately getting a smackdown from the AMA (at the VERY least)?

* We can also probably give the season finale a bit of slack in not being a 'normal' episode as well; since it's essentially closing off the entire story, it's not really a normal episode, and they probably didn't want to end proceedings on a cliffhanger note.

* Of course, in a meta-sense, the real reason it's kept vague is to allow the writers to send the detectives all over the city to investigate crimes and thus open up storytelling possibilities rather than having to limit themselves to a relatively small section of New York.

** Olivet calls McCoy and demands that Cutter be suspended. What I was more confused by is that him attacking Cutter was necessary to prove that he was a danger to himself or others. What about [[spoiler: the nine murders he committed]]?

* At least one person had been sentenced to death at this point (Sandig, in the episodes Savages), but apparently no one had actually been executed before this episode, or at least the characters hadn't witnessed the executions.

[[Recap/LawAndOrderS6E3Savages "Savages"]]: I find it telling that we never see the cops' reaction to McCoy's letting a SmugSnake drug dealer KarmaHoudini his way free and clear just so he could pin Capital Murder on someone whom he had dead to right for 2nd Degree Murder. I'm not sure which is worse, that the only thing we see by way of WhatTheHellHero is Claire passive-aggressively (but silently) judging him on it or the fact that Adam let him do it. Later seasons had more and more blatant anti-death penalty plots, but this was probably the most logic-defying. This is exactly the kind of JusticeByOtherLegalMeans abuse Jack would've (and had) protested had Arthur Branch ordered it.

* At least one person had been sentenced to death at this point (Sandig, in the episodes Savages), but no one had actually been executed before this episode.

* Why are the police "Law" and the lawyers "Order"? The police keep order on the streets, while the lawyers do the legal stuff...

* Why is it that a kid who was kidnapped as a child can snipe one person who may have screwed him and three random people for an unsympathetic reason and get away with it, but another kid, who is arguable more sympathetic, doesn't get away with killing one person on impulse?

* The last episode of Season 6 features the execution of a CompleteMonster who raped and murdered a girl, then shows everyone's reactions to it. Problem: earlier in the season, a much more sympathetic murderer was convicted and given the death penalty; he was to be the first person executed under the new system. No mention of him is made here, and they act like the CompleteMonster is the first person to be executed under it. Did they seriously rewrite their own canon to make their political views more acceptable?

* Why is it that a kid who was kidnapped as a child can snipe one person who may have screwed him and three random people for an unsympathetic reason and get away with it, but another kid, who is arguable more sympathetic, doesn't get away with killing one person on impulse?

* Why are the police "Law" and the lawyers "Order"? The police keep order on the streets, while the lawyers do the legal stuff...

* Their argument was that he (Drake) raped her, and that the rape eventually led to the death of his friend Hudson (because the girl, Nicole, fought back when Hudson came in to rape her and ended up killing him). This would fall under the felony murder statute, which says that, if a person commits a felony (even if it isn't murder) and someone else dies as a result, the person can be charged with murder just as if he'd killed the victim himself. If he committed rape, and Hudson died because of it, Drake could be legally held responsible for the murder.

In the episode Release (17-8) the detectives and the DA office seemed to really push the boundaries of believability by charging a No Celebrities were harmed version of Girl’s Gone Wild founder Joe Francis with rape and murder. In the case they seemed to be targeting him even when He had an airtight alibi for when the murder went down. Later after they found the real killer she claimed he raped her turning it into a he said she said case, it later turned she signed a contract giving consent and there was no footage of her resisting him. They let her off with man 2 and charged him with murder because he sent his friend to sleep with a girl which he had written permutation to do. They later bring in the mother of another girl he sleped with (both were in exchange for footage of the girls striping despite the they fact they had signed consent forms) and killed herself. The main argument against him seemed to be that he was sleazy which might be true, but none of that is a very solid rape case and absolutely in no way is murder. The defendant’s attorney seemed to be the only one to relies it as the judge and jury sided with the DA.

** According to my recollection, they dropped the charges against Jenny (the actual killer) so they could get her put in a mental institution; her accomplice was just sentenced as a juvenile. Second, the accomplice never did anything illegal until Jenny ordered her to help put the boy's body in the pipe; her confession specifically stated she had no idea Jenny was intent on killing the boy and presumably thought they were going taking him ou.

In "Helpless" (s3-6), how the hell did Dr. Merritt keep his medical license? I understand how he ducked the criminal charges (at first), but when you more or less cop to sexually assaulting a patient, how are you not immediately getting a smackdown from the AMA?